Friday, 20 January 2017

News from Nowhere Club

Founded in 1996, the club challenges the commercialisation and
isolation of modern life.

We meet monthly on Saturday evening.

‘Fellowship is life & the lack of fellowship is death’. William Morris

PROGRAMME 2017

At the Epicentre, West Street, Leytonstone E11 4LJ

7.30pm Buffet (please bring something if you can)

8.00pm Talk & discussion till 10pm & back to buffet

Travel and Access

Stratford stations &
257 bus

Leytonstone tube (exit
left) & 257/W14 bus

Overground: Leytonstone
High Road, turn right, short walk (from about Feb 2017 – best to check)

Disabled access

Car park /
Bikes can be brought in

Quiet children welcome.

You can phone to confirm
the talk will be as shown

Meetings open to all - just
turn up

Enquiries 0208 555 5248

Free
entry: voluntary donations welcome

‘The club is a real beacon of
light.’ Peter
Cormack,former Keeper at the William Morris Gallery

Saturday 14th
January 2017

Leytonstone
Playreading Group

Speakers: Alaisdair Preston, Nicolaus Mackie & Margaret Winniak

‘79 years of
performing staged play readings for free to people of Leytonstone & beyond.
A unique group presenting monthly unrehearsed staged play readings in costume
& with props, performing to an audience. Our catalogue of plays
includes old & new classics from heyday of repertory theatre,
through Maugham, Coward, Shaw, Rattigan to Pinter. Also to encourage
new writers to workshop their plays in front of an audience. We are a
regular participant in the Leytonstone Drama Festival & welcome new
audience members young & old, plus those wishing to try out acting
& skills such as stage management, script editing & costume design.
Some of our members, e.g. Sir Derek Jacobi, Frank Muir & Sheila Collings,
have gone on to successful careers in theatre & the media.’ There will be a
mini-playreading to the audience on the night.

Saturday
11th February 2017

More Anglican than
Anarchist: Christian Socialism and the Labour MovementSpeaker: Canon Steven Saxby

Waltham
Forest's very own Red Vicar will speak on the role Christians, including
Anglicans, played in the formation of the Labour movement & the Labour
Party. The Church Social Union, the Guild of St Matthew & the Church
Socialist League all made important contributions to Labour. Steward Headlam
& Conrad Noel, notorious radical clerics, were leaders of a movement which
challenged the Church & challenged the Party & was hugely important to
George Lansbury, sometime Labour leader. With reference to how the churches
related to other Labour strands, including those inspired by William Morris,
Canon Saxby will consider how the churches helped transform the UK at the turn
of the last century & how they might again contribute to the social
movement politics required to bring real change to Britain today.

Saturday
11th March 2017

Alice Wheeldon: convicted of
conspiracy to murder Lloyd George - 100 years on, can we clear her name?Speaker: Chloë Mason

100 years ago, Alice Wheeldon, Winnie
& Alf Mason were imprisoned amidst international publicity that had made
them instant ‘tabloid villains’ since their arrest in January 1917. They had
been set up by undercover agents posing as conscientious objectors. The family
argued that the murder plan was fabricated. The family’s
fate was used to intimidate others striving to avoid/stop war & to bring
about a better world based on peace & social justice. This compelling
story, a ‘spy story’, is one of tragedy, courage & hope. Chloë,
great-grand-daughter of Alice Wheeldon, will discuss the campaign to clear
their names.

Saturday
8th April 2017

'Comrade Morris is not dead!'

The Political Life and Thought of WilliamMorris, 1883-1896Speaker:
Colin Waugh

William Morris was active
as a socialist from 1883 till his death in 1896. While remaining a designer,
craftsperson, artist and poet, he travelled the country speaking to
working-class audiences on topics like 'Useful work versus useless toil', 'How
we live & how we might live', and 'A factory as it might be'. In 1889, his
'utopian' novel, News from Nowhere, was published. This talk will look
at how Morris related to others active at the time, including Eleanor Marx and
the anarchists who joined his Socialist League, andwillsuggest that his ideas may
be more relevant now than ever.

Saturday 13th May
2017

Carols from the Coalfields

Speaker / Performer: Chris
Harrison

A musical evening,
featuring poems by Joseph Skipsey, a self-educated coal miner, set to music by
his great-great-grandson, Chris Harrison.
Joseph Skipsey, ‘The Pitman Poet’, was born in Northumberland in
1832. He began colliery work aged seven.
Having taught himself to read & write, he published his first book of poems
in 1859. Chris has set 24 of Skipsey’s
poems to music, calling the project “Carols from the Coalfields”, after the
collection which Skipsey published in 1886.
The songs offer a rich & varied picture of life in the mining
communities, while describing issues & experiences still relevant today. His CDs, volumes 1, 2 & 3, will be on
sale (£5 each.)

Saturday 11th June 2017

New Leaf: A Botanical
Phylogeny Garden for All Speaker:
Vinnie O’Connell

Vinnie,
botanist & plant historian, is Founding Director of this fascinating
project in West Dulwich. They not only offer education, training &
employment to adults aged 16+, but run a bookshop, maintain a phylogenic garden
(depicting the evolution of flowering plants throughout time, starting in the
pond with water lilies 140 million years ago through to modern cottage gardens)
but also organise children’s activities, outreach work & create gardens in
other parts of London. It’s a hub for local people of all ages who drop in
& learn about the plant & insect life on their own doorstep.

July
9th 2017 (part of the Leytonstone Festival)

This Other London - Adventures in the Overlooked City Speaker: John Rogers

Writer and film-maker John
Rogers talks through his 100 mile journey on foot aroundLondon
seeking out the under-explored corners of the city for his book, This Other
London - adventures in the overlooked city. His journeys took him from the
wild west of Hounslow Heath to Wanstead Flats, from Uxendon Hill to the seven
hills surrounding Dulwich, Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam-on-Thames at Beckton,
wassailing in the Lea Valley & many more adventures along the way. He will
also share some of his research from the follow-up book instigated by the new
Stratford Mega City development.

August
13th 2017

R F Mackenzie: The Last Word on Education

Speaker: Ros Kane

R
F Mackenzie (1910-1987), a libertarian teacher inspired by A S Neill, chose to
work in state education. As head of two Scottish secondary schools, he tried to
run them in ways that caused great controversy, leading to the end of his
headships. For the rest of his life, he publicised his ideas. Mackenzie wrote
several well-received books. His biography by Peter Murphy is rightly called
‘Prophet Without Honour.’ Ros, with a background in teaching, community action,
psychotherapy & child mental health, believes Mackenzie’s ideas are
enormously important & relevant to our times. Does anything else need to be written?

Saturday
September 9th 2017

Ethel
Mannin: Feminist, Anarchist, Anti-FascistSpeaker:
Andy Simons

Andy will unpack the life of this working class yet wealth-sacrificing writer, social
rebel, tireless campaigner & author of almost 100 books of fiction &
non-fiction. The feminist
ignored by feminists. Ethel Mannin (1900-1984) was a lot ofthings:
a single mum by design,an anti-fascist & anti-British Mandate
activist before the Second World War, an intrepid & sometimes illegal world
traveller, & consistent anarchist.
Andy Simons is a retired curator of British books and worldwide jazz at the
British Library. Prior to this he was Head Archivist at the Amistad
Research Center, the largest African-American manuscripts repository in the
USA. He presented on local radio stations for 25 years, in Providence,
Chicago, and New Orleans and has written a jazz social history, Black
British Swing : The African Diaspora’s Contribution to England’s Own Jazz of
the 1930s & 1940s. Most of his time is devoted to Palestinian
rights activism, as was the case with the author Ethel Mannin in the 1960s.

Saturday October 14th
2017

Cyclogeography:
Journeys of a London Bicycle Courier Speaker: Jon Day

Jon Day is a
writer, literary critic & cyclist. He now teaches English literature at
King’s College London but before this he worked as a cycle courier in London
for many years, & published a book in 2015 about his experiences. He will talk about the politics of cycling,
the literary & cultural history of the bicycle & the ways in which
bicycles connect people with places.

Simon’s talk
will include slides, sharing some of his experiences from the grassroots
regeneration of Cody Dock in East London. ‘Topics to be covered: the back story
to how & why the charity GDP was formed; what was achieved by volunteers
& the community; our long term mission & master plan for Cody Dock;
what we have learnt & would like to share with others.’

Saturday 9th December 2017

Felting: Adapting a
Prehistoric Skill for Modern Art

Speaker:
Nicola Harris

‘Felting,
the ancient process of converting fleece to felted wool, is now a popular hobby
& living for many crafts people & artists, such as myself. Whereas the
everyday use of wool has decreased considerably with the advent of modern
materials, the recent expansion of felting skills is leading to new &
exciting uses for wool. This in turn has begun to improve the outlook for sheep
farmers & led to an improvement in the fortunes of those rare breeds with
specialist wools. This talk will include some practical participation in a
small seasonal bit of felt making!’ Please bring a towel & a cup.